Most people have heard of it or seen it at least once. Your food packages are giving you less per bag for more money than they were 10 years ago. It’s a common complaint and a sign of an economic recession to many Americans, but those people fail to realize portion sizes outside of the United States are smaller.
The United States always ranks within the top 25 most obese countries on earth, with easily the largest population of those 25 countries. Nowadays Americans are, fortunately, more health-conscious than ever, but the effects of mass-produced burgers and fries have the country addicted still. These fast-food restaurants used to sell “Super-Sized” meals with gargantuan portions that gave people the idea that America was the best for having these huge portions of food. While these portions do look extravagant, they’re extremely unhealthy, as they were thankfully deemed so back then. Even now, people look at our meal portions and think they’re “super-sized” compared to what they eat at home.
Travel anywhere outside of the United States and you’ll immediately see the difference in size and why most other countries don’t have as much of an obesity problem as the U.S. does. The average non-American fast-food restaurant offers large meals that are slightly smaller than American medium meals, not counting healthier restaurants. Various additives and preservatives used in food in the United States are banned in other countries for toxicity, deemed too unsafe for consumption.
Many people view the United States as one of the best places to eat in the world, but in my opinion, we should get in line with the rest of the world if we’re becoming a more health-conscious country. We’re not going to starve with smaller portions; our food isn’t going to become inedible if we have fewer preservatives in it. It’s not great that everything’s becoming more expensive, but food portions growing smaller will help us eat healthier in the long run.
